Hamit Altıntop

Hamit Altıntop
Personal information
Full name	Hamit Altıntop
Date of birth	8 December 1982 (1982-12-08) (age 26)
Place of birth	Gelsenkirchen, West Germany
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Bayern Munich
Number	8
Youth clubs
1991-1992 1992-1997 1997-2000	Schwarz-Weiß Gelsenkirchen-Süd TuS Rotthausen Wattenscheid 09
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2000–2003 2003 2003–2007 2007–	Wattenscheid 09 Schalke 04 II Schalke 04 Bayern Munich	075 (12) 001 0(0) 113 0(8) 024 0(3)
National team
2004–	Turkey	047 0(2)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23 August 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Hamit Altıntop (born 8 December 1982 in Gelsenkirchen, West Germany) is a Turkish national footballer. He is a versatile midfielder and can play either in a defending or attacking role. He is well known for his flair of long-shot ability, as shown when he played for Schalke 04 and so far with Bayern Munich.

He is the identical twin brother of footballer Halil Altıntop, who was born 10 minutes after Hamit.^[1]

Schalke

Altıntop started his professional career in local German club Wattenscheid in 2000 along with his brother. As successful performances grabbed the attention of bigger clubs, he was transferred to Schalke 04 in 2003, where he played in a primarily defensive midfield role. In the 2006–07 summer transfer window, Schalke signed his brother Halil from FC Kaiserslautern. Schalke came second in the Bundesliga, only pipped by VfB Stuttgart by two points.

Bayern Munich

Hamit joined Bayern Munich for the 2007–2008 season on a free transfer from Schalke 04. He scored his first goal in his first game for Bayern when they faced the Brazilian champions São Paulo. Munich went on winning the game 2-1 after his spectacular free-kick. Remaining as one of Munich's starters, he scored another left-foot goal out of 30 meters distance against Werder Bremen in the Liga-Pokal. Munich completed the match with a 4-1 victory.

Altıntop also scored against Aberdeen F.C. in the first leg of their tie in the UEFA Cup competition on 14 February 2008. The initial penalty kick was saved by Aberdeen goalkeeper Jamie Langfield, however Altintop was quick to score the rebound. The match finished 2-2.

Honours

• Schalke 04
  • German League-Cup: 2006
  • Bundesliga Runner-up: 2007
• FC Bayern Munich
  • German League-Cup: 2007
  • Bundesliga Champions: 2008
  • German Cup: 2008
• Turkey
  • Carlsberg UEFA EURO 2008 Man of the Match Award (vs Croatia)
  • UEFA EURO 2008 Team of the tournament^[2]

International career

Goals for Turkey

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	28 March 2007	Frankfurt, Germany	Norway	1-2	2-2	UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying
2.	28 March 2007	Frankfurt, Germany	Norway	2-2	2-2	UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying

Euro 2008

Hamit played in all five of Turkey's matches. He assisted all three goals in the comeback against the Czech Republic and in the quarter finals against Croatia he had another solid game and scored the third penalty to make it 3:1 in the shoot out. After goalkeeper Rüştü Reçber saved the next Croatian penalty, Turkey advanced to the semi-finals against Germany. Turkish coach Fatih Terim used him as a right defender in the first two games of the tournament, a move that was heavily criticised by the media, since Hamit is a midfielder for his club Bayern Munich. After the match against Switzerland, Terim switched him to midfield for the remainder of the tournament, which boosted both Turkey's and his own performance. His bold playing style and decisive passes made him a dominant player in the Turkish midfield. He was awarded with the Carlsberg Man of the Match award following the quarter final match against Croatia.

At the conclusion of the tournament, Altıntop was universally acknowledged to be one of the tournament's stars, and was included in UEFA's official 23-man "Team of the Tournament". He is the first (and only) Turkish player to appear in the list.^[2]

References

External links

• Players official site
• Profile at transfermarkt.de (German)
• Profile at weltfussball.de (German)
• Profile at fussballdaten.de (German)

Turkey squad – UEFA Euro 2008 Semi-finalists 1 Rüştü • 2 Servet • 3 Hakan • 4 Gökhan Zan • 5 Emre • 6 Mehmet Topal • 7 Mehmet Aurélio • 8 Nihat • 9 Semih • 10 Gökdeniz • 11 Tümer • 12 Tolga • 13 Emre Güngör • 14 Arda • 15 E. Aşık • 16 Uğur Boral • 17 Tuncay • 18 C. Kazım • 19 Ayhan Akman • 20 Sabri • 21 Mevlüt • 22 Hamit Altıntop • 23 Volkan • Coach: Terim